Elsewhen for agents

Who can play

Playing means sending HTTP requests yourself: POST with JSON bodies and an Authorization header, again and again over a session. Agents that run commands or code can do this (OpenClaw, Codex, Claude Code, your own scripts).

If you can only read web pages — for example you are a chat assistant that opened this link for your human — you cannot play, and nothing here will change that. Do not pretend to register or play, and do not ask your human to paste an API key or a token into the conversation. Instead, tell them plainly, in their language, that they have two ways in:

1. Play it themselves in a browser: https://play.elsewhengame.com/about → 「開始玩」. They log in with their email; if they have no key yet, the site walks them through getting a free Google AI Studio key.
2. Let an agent that can run commands play it: OpenClaw (clawhub install elsewhen), or Codex / Claude Code on their own computer, given this page's link. To have it play on their own account, they log in on the site first and press 「讓你的 agent 來玩」 on the home page to get a token for it.

Before you start

• Chinese only. Elsewhen is written in Traditional Chinese by design, and the world answers in Chinese whatever language you write in. Use it only if you and your human are fine with that; there is no other language.
• Your model key goes to a third-party server. Every game is paid by a model key you store on the Elsewhen server (agents.elsewhengame.com). It is stored encrypted and used only for your games, but it is still a billable credential held by someone else. Use a separate key made just for this, with a low credit limit — never a primary or broadly funded key.
• Keep your Elsewhen token private. It opens your saves and your stored key.

Elsewhen is a text game in Traditional Chinese. You pick (or are given) a real time and place in history, cross over, and live there: you plan actions, talk to people, and settle each turn to see what happened. The world remembers everything. A voice lives in your head and can help you; it only knows what it can perceive.

Base URL: https://agents.elsewhengame.com

Every request except registration carries Authorization: Bearer <token>. POST bodies are JSON (Content-Type: application/json). Send a User-Agent naming your client (for example my-agent/1.0): Python's default Python-urllib/… is refused by the network in front of the server.

1. Register (once)

If your human gave you a token from their Elsewhen home page, skip this step and use that token: you play on their account, with their key, and they see your games in their own list (and can take over when you stop). Skip step 2 as well unless they tell you otherwise.

POST /agent/register        {"name": "your-name"}
→ {"uid": "agent_…", "token": "ew_…"}

The token is shown only this once. Keep it; there is no recovery.

2. Store your OpenRouter key (once)

POST /keys                  {"openrouter": "sk-or-v1-…"}
→ {"openrouter": true, …}

Every model call in your games is paid by this key; nobody else pays for your games. The server keeps it encrypted, uses it only for your games, and never shows it back. You cannot start a game without it.

Ask your human for a key made just for this, with a credit limit set on it (OpenRouter lets you cap each key). Do not hand over a key that pays for anything else.

A Google AI Studio key works too ({"google": "…"}, then "pay": "google"); its free tier costs nothing, and the model is picked for you.

GET /models lists the models you may choose (openrouter list; use the key).

What it costs, roughly, with luna-6: US$0.10–0.20 to create a world and cross over, then a few cents per settled turn. Bigger models cost more.

3. Start a game, or reopen one

POST /new                   {"pay": "openrouter", "model": "luna-6"}
→ {"save": "<save name>", "next": N, …}

GET  /saves                 → your saves
POST /open                  {"save": "<save name>", "pay": "openrouter", "model": "luna-6"}
→ {"save": "<save name>", "next": N, …}

Reading the screen from since=0 after /open replays everything this save has shown so far; reading from the returned next shows only what comes after.

You have one running game at a time; opening another stops the current one (nothing is lost — everything settled is saved). The server has a small number of seats for agents; if they are full you get 503 — try again later.

4. Read the screen, then type

GET  /agent/screen?since=<next>
→ {"save", "kind", "alive", "ready", "events": [...], "next": N}

POST /say                   {"line": "<one line>"}

• Start with since=0, then pass back the next you received.
• events with "kind": "out" carry the screen text (text); channel says whose voice it is (world is the game, sys is the voice in your head).
• ready: true means the game is waiting for your line. When it is false the game is still thinking (settling a turn can take a minute or two) — wait a few seconds and read again. Do not send lines while it is not ready.
• kind is opening while you are answering the opening questions. When you cross over (:go), you get an event {"kind": "crossed"} and the opening process ends (alive: false). POST /open with the same save to start playing; kind is then play.
• alive: false means the game process ended (you quit, or it was idle too long). POST /open with the same save to continue.

Playing

• The opening asks you who you are and where you want to go; answer in plain lines.
• In play, any line that is not a command is an action you plan for this turn. Plan a few, then settle with :end. Type :help for the full command list.
• :sys <words> talks to the voice in your head; it costs no action.
• :talk lists people you can reach; :talk 2 starts talking with the 2nd.
• :sleep ends the day; :move <place> goes somewhere; :jump 7 skips days.
• :quit leaves; everything settled is saved.
• Write in Chinese if you can; the world answers in Chinese either way.

Stop

POST /close                 {}

Games idle for a long time are stopped by the server; reopen them with /open.

Coming back

A world does not need to be finished in one sitting; it waits for you. Keep your token and your save name somewhere you will find them again. Each time you wake:

1. POST /open your save (it answers at once if the game is still running).
2. Read GET /agent/screen?since=<next> until ready: true, and see what happened.
3. Play a turn or two — plan, :end — then POST /close until next time, so the seat goes to someone else. Nothing settled is lost.

The world keeps its own calendar: people you met go on with their lives, and history arrives on its dates whether you are ready or not.